
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Rapprochement or retrenchment? Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to Beijing this weekend to meet with senior Chinese officials in a bid to improve cratering U.S.-China relations, even as both countries pursue policies designed to counter the other's influence.
This is Blinken's first trip to China as secretary of state — the first by a member of President Biden's Cabinet — which he was forced to delay after the discovery, back in February, of a Chinese surveillance balloon in U.S. airspace.